


Third Time's the Charm

by sweaterbarnes



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Actor Steve Rogers, Alternate Universe, Bucky has a cat, Director Natasha Romanov, F/F, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Natasha is a little shit, Poor Bucky Barnes, background Natasha/Sharon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 15:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13274361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweaterbarnes/pseuds/sweaterbarnes
Summary: Apparently, Natasha works with veritable Adonises on a regular basis without telling Bucky. This just won't do. Now, how can he get one blond Adonis in particular to go on a date with him?





	Third Time's the Charm

**Author's Note:**

> This is a (extremely) late Christmas gift for the lovely [Nik](https://princess-of-the-worlds.tumblr.com/)! I struggled a little with it but I hope it stands up to any expectations.
> 
> Happy New Year everyone!

 “I look like I have a stick up my ass, Natasha,” Bucky grumbled, fiddling with the tie around his neck as he examined his blurry reflection in the wet window of the limo. His hair was slicked back into a neat bun for the first time in forever and rings that were far too expensive for his comfort glinted on his fingers. His freshly pressed suit was all crisp lines with a cut that was in no way forgiving of anything other than perfect posture. Beside him, Natasha looked perfectly at home in her own suit, rolling her eyes at his grousing.

“It’s only for one night, Bucky. I think you can handle a little class for a few hours of schmoozing .” She reached over the seat and batted his hand away from the tie. “Stop fussing or you’ll ruin all my hard work - and don’t you dare touch your hair.”

Bucky huffed and settled back into his seat, absentmindedly picking at invisible lint on his pants. Soon – too soon – the car pulled up in front of a sprawling mansion and the partition separating them from the driver rolled down smoothly.

“We’ve arrived, Ms. Romanoff…Mr. Barnes.”

Bucky didn’t miss the little derisive sniff that followed his name. Natasha hadn’t missed it either by the way she cleared her throat meaningfully. The driver ignored them and rolled the partition back up, clicking open his door and strolling over to open the other door for them. He pointedly ignored Bucky as he clambered out of the backseat, followed by Natasha who practically floated out of the car. On her way out, however, she dug the heel of her stiletto into the toe of the driver’s shoe without stopping. Hooking her arm around Bucky’s, she steered him towards the front door, leaving a quietly cursing driver to hop back to his seat.

“Now, you know Tony, Bruce, and Darcy. Stick with talking to me or them and, for the love of God, avoid Sharon at all costs,” Natasha hissed into his ear, pausing intermittently to smile at the various couples draped in wealth they passed. 

“Why? I thought she was the whole point you brought me. Gotta stir the pot somehow, am I right?” he whispered back, grunting softly when she subtly jabbed her elbow pinpoint between two ribs. “Sorry,” he muttered, even though he was right.

“You are not here to make her jealous, I just want her to see that I’m doing fine on my own.”

“So…you want to make her jealous.” He angled away from the next jab with a roll of his eyes.

Natasha opened her mouth for a retort but they’d reached the door and she had to hold back whatever she was about to say as it burst open and an extremely tipsy Tony Stark stumbled out followed by an irate Bruce Banner.

“Hey ladies, looking great Bucky-boy,” Tony slurred, waving a thumbs-up in their direction before puking into the nearest bush.

“Nice to see you as always, Tony,” Natasha said, nodding at them before dragging Bucky through the door into what looked like his idea of hell. The cavernous entryway was full of people who all looked like they had too much money for their own good and knew it. Pretentious classical music played in the background from the band all dressed in black in the corner of a side-room. Bucky itched to be back home and out of this suit, even his shitty apartment was better than the stifling atmosphere of parties like this. He knew what he was agreeing to when he said he would go with Natasha to what she phrased as a “connection event.” She had neglected to mention, however, that the “connection event” would involve dressing like a model from a men’s fashion magazine and having to be in the same room as people he paid too much money to watch cry on a screen. From across the room, the star of some rom-com was eyeing him up and he ever-so-slightly moved closer to Natasha.

Unfortunately for him, Natasha had spotted Sharon and showily kissed him on the cheek before making her way through the crowd to talk to the group of girls who were standing just to Sharon’s left. Bucky groaned inwardly and headed straight for the long table of finger foods, loading up a plate, and ducking into a corner to eat and try to avoid eye contact with anyone. From his place beside a pillar, he had a direct line of sight to Natasha. She had her back to Sharon but had angled herself so that she could see her in the mirrored wall panels to her right. Whenever Sharon glanced over at how she was loudly laughing at what was surely a vapid joke, Natasha would subtly straighten her back and emphasize the way her suit perfectly fit each of her curves. Both Natasha and Sharon kept casually moving closer and closer to each other. Bucky was watching the slow trainwreck with apt fascination and sucked in a breath as Sharon reached out a hand to tap Natasha on the back and – a wall of navy fabric blocked his view. He dropped his sausage back onto his plate with a sigh of frustration and cleared his throat to make his presence known to the wall of a man currently completely boxing him in.  The hulking mass jumped slightly and turned around, apologizing in a deep voice.

A deep voice that belonged to the most beautiful man Bucky had ever seen.

Fuck.

~~~~~~

The handsome mountain had a name, Steve, and he was apparently at the party at the behest of his best friend Sam who hated to come to these things on his own. He looked just as uncomfortable as Bucky, except he still managed to exude an aura of belonging that Bucky was positive he did not personally possess.  

“So what do you do?” Bucky asked, taking a sip and trying to act like he wasn’t prying just to keep Steve talking to him. Steve was by far the most interesting thing at the party and was pretty much the only thing beside Natasha keeping him from bolting for the door.

“…I’m an actor,” Steve said, looking weirdly surprised at Bucky’s question. He narrowed his eyes slightly. “What do you do? I don’t remember seeing you at one of these events before. How do you know Ms. Romanoff?”

 “I’m a friend of hers and this seemed like an interesting way to spend the evening.” A total avoidance of his question, but hell with it. He would probably never see Steve outside of this room so, for one night, he could pretend to be someone else.

Steve nodded, seemingly satisfied, and continued the conversation, making side-comments about the ridiculous outfits of the people around them, telling Bucky stories about the couple across the room, and generally doing his best to make Bucky’s sides hurt with how hard he was trying to suppress his laughter.  He was so distracting, that Bucky completely missed Natasha disappearing with Sharon and only noticed she’d moved when she popped up at his side and hooked his arm.

“My apologies, Rogers, but I have to steal this one from you. I’ll see you soon, yes?” Her grip on Bucky was tight and she sounded just as frazzled as she looked with her hair falling out of her ponytail and her lipstick smudged at the edges.

“We have that upcoming project so I certainly hope I will,” Steve said, smiling and giving a little wave before melting back into the crowd with a, “ _Very_ nice to meet you, Bucky.”

Bucky waved back with a grin (he totally wasn’t watching his ass in that suit) then grunted at the feeling of Natasha’s elbow into his ribs. “What?”

“Don’t flirt when you’re pretending to be my date, you little shit.”

“Like you don’t flirt with Sharon? Got it.” He raised an eyebrow at her and pointed at his mouth. “You’ve got a little pink mixed with your red.”

Natasha flushed and rubbed her lips together to mix the colors a little more and pulled him towards more stuffy directors and industry people. He was forced to stay and mingle with her for more than three hours and he was only able to catch a few glimpses of Steve who occasionally made eye contact and shook his head in sympathy. By the end of the party he was sure his feet were bleeding from the stiff leather shoes, the gel in his hair was making his scalp itchy, and he’d been on the receiving of a few too many extra-friendly hugs from both a few older actresses and two producers. He barely held in the groan of relief when Natasha gently extracted herself from a dull conversation about casting and dragged Bucky back to the limo.

As soon as her ass hit the seat, her heels were off and she was shaking her hair out of its sleek bun. Bucky was sprawled across his part of the seat and pressed his cheek against the cool window, closing his eyes in relief at the silence of the car.

“Never ask me for any favors again, Nat. This was the worst.”

Natasha snorted and started to comb her fingers through the small snarls in her hair. “At least you got to talk to Steve Rogers, lucky night.” For some reason, she made it seem as if Bucky had won the lottery or something. Sure, Steve was attractive, but Bucky didn’t think he deserved _that_ tone of voice.

Keeping his eyes closed, Bucky shot her a thumbs-up and proceeded to nap the whole way home, ignoring the huff of annoyance the driver gave him when he opened his door once they’d reached Bucky’s building and Bucky almost fell out of the car onto his shoes.

~~~~~~

Bucky slumped against the door of his apartment and loosened his tie with a sigh. He’d left his jacket somewhere between the limo and his place and he didn’t care enough to go look, Natasha could afford to replace it if she missed it that much. He stripped off his shirt, tie, and slacks as he navigated his dark, cramped living room and fell face first onto the futon he’d shoved into the corner to serve as a bed. He halfway pulled his covers over his lower half and was asleep almost instantaneously, vaguely acknowledging his cat Spark’s presence as she snuggled in under his arm.

~~~~~~

**Two Months Later:**

A series of loud knocks echoed through his small apartment, causing Spark to go flying into the bathroom for safety and Bucky to almost drop his breakfast ramen in surprise.

“What the fuck, Nat,” he grumbled, opening to the door to face a cross Natasha with her face buried in her phone.

“One of my assistants is out sick today and I really need some help. All you have to do is take notes during a few meetings.”

“Listen, I have a cat to feed and grumpy construction workers to deal with I don’t-”

“I’ll pay you more than you’d make today and you can call in and say your arm is acting up again, don’t worry about it.”

Bucky worried his lip then said, “Fine. Give me a minute.”

Natasha smirked and nudged past him. “You have five.”

~~~~~~

 After the first two meetings, Bucky’s hand was aching from all of his scribbling and he had started to make bets with himself about how many fake smiles Natasha could give before she was stuck that way.

“Tell me we’re done with meetings, Nat. My hand’s gonna fall off if we don’t stop soon.”

“One more left.  I’m meeting with one of my actors because we need to go over some script changes before we start shooting and his role is the one who’s gone through the most drastic adjustment.”

“Can’t you just email him or something? You need to feed me, can’t have your staff dying of starvation on your time.”

Natasha rolled her eyes at him. “You aren’t my staff, if you’re going to die of starvation it certainly won’t be my fault, and he prefers face-to-face.”

~~~~~~

To Bucky’s shock, the actor Natasha was meeting with was Steve from the party. He had traded his suit for a pair of worn jeans and a hoodie, baseball cap slung low over his face and sunglasses covering his eyes. He leaned back in the cushioned chair across from Natasha’s desk and shot a grin over to where Bucky was perched on a folding chair, dirty work boots tucked under him and notebook balanced on his knee.

“Professional notetaker, huh?

“Among other things, yes.” Bucky snorted when Steve wiggled his eyebrows suggestively before giving him another smile.

“Bucky’s standing in for my assistant today,” Natasha said, eyes glued to the script she was scribbling on in red pen.

Steve nodded, accepting the brief explanation, and turned his attention to her as she finished writing and spun the script around, sliding it across the table for him to look through. She pointed out particularly important details as he read and would occasionally pause to explain a line change or character note more thoroughly. Bucky  tuned them out for the most part, only jotting down a note or two when Natasha asked him to. He did, however, sneak glances at the desk, enjoying the focused look on Steve’s face and how he chewed on his lower lip when he was thinking.

After almost an hour of this back and forth, Steve and Natasha agreed on a finalized version of Steve’s characterization and ended the meeting. Steve flipped up his hood and secured his cap, getting up to head for the door.

“I hope you know that isn’t a great disguise, Rogers. You can’t hide that jawline for anything,” Natasha commented, coming around the desk to open the door for him.

“I do what I can.” Steve leaned past her to see Bucky. “Hey, I didn’t actually get a way to contact you last time and I was enjoying our conversation. Any chance you could give me your number?”

Bucky tried not to light up at his words and pulled a piece of paper from the notebook, carefully putting down his cell in as legible handwriting as he could manage. “Here you g-oh fuck,” he grumbled, his phone ringing just as he was about to hand over the paper. He hit ‘Answer’ and put the phone to his ear, “Hello?”

“Where the fuck were you today?! You are about one strike away from getting fired, Barnes. Don’t think we can’t replace you!” Fury, true to his name, shouted into his ear.

Oh, shit. He’d forgotten to ask for the day off of work. He couldn’t afford to lose another job. Putting up a finger, he slipped out of the room and left Steve and Natasha to talk as he practically begged Fury to give him extra after-hours work to make up for it. By the time he was done, Steve had disappeared down the hall without Bucky’s number and Natasha was waiting for him with her keys dangling.

“You’re driving,” was all she said and then she too went off towards the parking lot.

~~~~~~

**Two More Months Later:**

Bucky promised himself this was the last favor he was allowing Natasha as he dragged a box filled with prop guns into the half a train car set piece he was helping put the final touches on. Other crew members were rigging windows to break and one was switching out the lightbulbs that ran the length of the ceiling of the train car.

Natasha had donned what she referred to as her “Directing Glasses,” and sat in her chair, calling out notes to the crew. This largely consisted of making Bucky adjust boxes by infinitesimal amounts for her own enjoyment. With every note Bucky sent her a fond glare (though he admitted he may somewhat deserve it after accidentally walking in on her and Sharon…catching up).  Finally, she was bored of the boxes and called him over, tossing him a bottle of water.

“Thanks for agreeing to help, I’m so short staffed it isn’t funny.”

“I needed a work out anyway,” Bucky muttered, taking a swig from the proffered bottle.

She snorted and patted the seat of the folding chair next to her. “You can stay and watch the filming if you want, I get bored sitting here alone.”

“No thanks, Spark has a vet appointment today. I’ll see you later though, yeah?”

Natasha shrugged and they said their goodbyes, Bucky making his way through the maze of equipment and props to reach the exit. At the door he passed two men he assumed were actors and gave them a nod as he passed. The first was a man in a dark blue uniform that looked to be from the 1930s or ‘40s who was talking to someone hidden by a pile of equipment. Bucky ignored them until he heard the deep register of the second man. He would deny the way he whipped around at the sound until the day the Devil came to take his soul. There was Steve, clad in what was essentially a skintight stars and stripes catsuit that – while it looked ridiculous – emphasized every fucking line of muscle and drew attention directly to first his frankly unnecessary pecs  and then his equally unnecessary yet perfectly shaped ass. He could hear Natasha struggling to contain her laughter at his reaction behind him but ignored it and walked up to the men.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he said. Bucky would also forever deny the way his stomach flipped when Steve looked up, saw him, and lit up like a goddamn Christmas tree.

“Bucky!” Steve nudged his conversation partner on and hurried to meet Bucky, looking him over with a grin.

“First a suit, then sweatpants, now this…situation? What are you gonna wear next?”

Steve looked down at himself and rolled his eyes. “Of course you come on the worst day possible. I can promise you this wasn’t my idea.”

“It was mine,” Natasha shouted with a wink. “Audiences love a little spandex.”

“She’s not wrong,” Bucky whispered with a wink of his own, making Steve snort a laugh.

“Now, get a move on Rogers. We have a film to make!” she shouted again, waving her hand in an overdramatic flourish towards the set.

Steve sighed lightly and made to leave, but Bucky put a hand on his wrist to stop him. “Hey, maybe if I actually give you my number this time we won’t have to keep meeting like this.” He slipped the piece of notebook paper that he still hadn’t taken out of his jacket pocket into Steve’s palm.

Steve closed his fingers around the paper and gave Bucky a warm, slow smile. A smile full of potential promises.

~~~~~~

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, everyone! Comments, kudos, and feedback are always welcome!
> 
> Stalk me on [Tumblr](http://wolfbarnes.tumblr.com/).


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